The present application is based on Japanese Priority Documents 2000-346397 filed on Nov. 14, 2000 the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product label and, more in particular, it relates to a sales promotion label, for example, a product label used on foodstuffs such as meat and fish which are displayed on selling stores.
2. Discussion of the Background
Generally, a product label which is used for the sale of foodstuffs and appended on goods comprises a sales promotion indication area for indicating the sales promoting information and a goods content indication area for explaining the content of the goods. Letters such as for special price, illustrations or POP advertisement are printed in the promotion indication area and name of goods, data for measured weight, usual price, production date, bar code, etc. are printed in the goods content indication area.
For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application 2000-98897 specifically discloses a product label comprising a sales promotion indication area and a goods content indication area in which the content of the sales promotion indication area is printed in a color different from that for the goods content indication area. Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 11-7243 discloses a label of printing an emphasis area (emphasized indication area) and a non-emphasis area (goods content indication area) by different colors selectively using heat sensitive paper that forms two kinds of colors depending on the level of the heating temperature. Message such as information for special price and service goods of the month, illustration and the like are printed in the emphasized indication area. Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 10-337911 describes a method for attaining two color printing by the combination of heat sensitive paper and thermal transfer system, as well as a method of printing by plural printing means such as ink jet printing.
In the product label, method of using two color heat sensitive paper, a thermal color transfer printing system or plural printing systems has been proposed by disposing an emphasis area for the sales promotion of goods and an information region as a non-emphasis area and make the color of emphasized letters and figures such as POP or special price information different from the color of the information region in order to appeal the goods more effectively. However, two color heat sensitive paper requires to provide high and low levels of heat energy for each of heat sensitive layers, which complicates the control and requires high temperature heating. Therefore, it is may be considered that the printing speed is restricted, working life of the thermal head is deteriorated and the color mixing is caused inevitably since a lower temperature area is present at the periphery of high temperature heating. Further, the thermal transfer system required plural transfer ribbons and thermal heads for providing plural colors and was, therefore, expensive. Further, the method of using the ink jet and the thermal transfer system in combination with the heat sensitive paper increased the cost of the apparatus since plural printing systems were required.
In view of the above, the present invention intends to provide a product label which can reduce the material cost for the label and enables heat sensitive recording of two or more colors with no color mixing under simple control.
The present invention also intends to provide a product label which can be printed by the application of an identical amount of heat energy upon heat sensitive recording for two or more colors, not requiring special heat control and enabling high speed printing.
These objects of the present invention are achieved by the novel product label of the present invention.
According to the novel product label of the present invention, a heat sensitive recording layer and a heat sensitive color forming layer for printing goods information are laminated on a substrate. The heat sensitive color forming layer forms a color different from that of the heat sensitive recording layer, to form an emphasis area. The heat sensitive color forming layer for the emphasis area is disposed partially.